Purpose – This paper aims to form a best practice guide on how to successfully customize employees' work experience to engage the workforce and boost talent retention, as well as employee performance and productivity to the benefit of the organization and its workforce. Design/methodology/approach – For the new book Workforce of One: Revolutionizing Talent Management through Customization, research was carried out involving in‐depth interviews with more than two dozen employees, 70 executives, over 100 top organizations and a survey of 557 US employees. Using this information, as well as extensive focus on Best Buy as a case study organization that has successfully implemented customization approaches, this paper aims to demonstrate that addressing the needs of the individual and tailoring the work experience ultimately fosters a high‐performing motivated workforce. Findings – Many organizations are now working to create a customizable work experience for their employees, utilizing customization experiences familiar to those aimed at consumers by the marketing function. Through the interviews, Accenture was able to identify four main approaches to workforce customization, which are manageable, scalable, reliable and just. Practical implications – Just like employees, companies are all different, with unique strategies, histories, type of employees, values and cultures. As such, their best approach in creating a customization strategy is to use those customization approaches that best suit their unique needs. By using one or more of the workforce‐of‐one customization approaches, organizations can enjoy a substantial impact across the board. Originality/value – The customization approaches identified by Accenture – segmentation of the workforce, offering modular choices, defining broad and simple rules, and fostering employee‐defined personalization – avoids the usual pitfalls associated with workforce customization, such as a plethora of one‐off individual side deals, which can foster a negative workplace dynamic. Instead they offer an opportunity to establish more flexible systems, radically redefining the way HR supports its employees, yet ultimately creating a strong competitive advantage for the organization.
